Zozo’s Grille lacks thrill.

In my quest to complete both Village Voice and NY Mag lists, as referenced in the subtitle of this blog, I have noticed a significant discrepancy in the lists’ conception of both “cheap” and “good.”  On the one hand, NY Mag is responsible for sending me to the bizarre yet interesting Hong Kong Station – on the other hand, I spent $15 at Zozo’s Juice and Grille on Saturday night and got significantly less value for my money.

It wasn’t terrible, per se.  Both my paralegal friend and I had the Cajun blackened steak sandwich ($9), which we were expecting (a la Mooncake Foods) to come sliced on a roll.  We got the roll, certainly, but the steak was in one flattened piece, and a bit too tough to bite through cleanly, despite my ordering it medium rare (not that a steak that thin can be cooked medium rare).

The vaunted fries ($3.75), sparsely sprinkled with parmesan and garlic, brought forth more memories with the presentation than the flavor: they were presented in a cone that reminded me of the friteur on 2nd Avenue (the Belgians seem to eschew the cone in favor of a tray, oddly).  The fries themselves seemed to be a bit cooked for my taste, and the parmesan and garlic could have been slightly stronger in punch.

My friend ended up with a strawberry shake ($3.75), which was enormous.  16 ounces, I’m guessing, which is a lot of shake.  Fortunately, it was tasty (fresh fruit seemed to have been used), but two people could easily share one.

In going back to the review on the list, I notice that a ‘cube steak’ sandwich was mentioned – if, indeed, the steak was diced instead of slapped whole on a bun, this would alleviate my concern somewhat.  However, it’s still a $9 steak sandwich, for Peter’s sake.  Obviously rents are high (Arlene’s across the street charges $6 a bottle for Stella Artois, which is highway robbery), but…ladies and germs, I again welcome you to the Lower East Side.